Dangerous jobs, dirty jobs, Steve Jobs. All of those given examples are jobs. Some are more important than others. Many types of jobs go into a business and to have a successful business, every part of it has to work together and have good chemistry. Without good chemistry, a company or corporation would fall apart. This just goes to show how important certain jobs are. In an art museum or gallery, the most important job is the Art Collector. An Art Collector is someone who goes around and, as the job title suggests, collects art to display in the museum. Without an Art Collector, the museum would have no art. Without art, the art museum would have no point and would just be an unnecessary building. An Art Collector is responsible for the collections and has to take in many considerations while thinking about getting a new piece of art.
When bringing in new art and artifacts, Art Collectors have to consider many things. One thing they have to consider is: Will this art or artifact draw in business? If the community or people outside the community won’t like the art, there is no point in purchasing the it. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had a poor financial period around 2002. In an excerpt (source A) by David Rockefeller, he says, “This unbusinesslike process was symptomatic of a deeper problem: the lack of consensus about the composition of MoMA’s permanent collection and the direction our collecting should take in the future.” What one could get out of this is that the artwork collected was not very good and it didn’t draw in much business. The lack of business caused the museum’s finances to decrease causing the bleak financial period. All this rests on the collector’s shoulders.
Something all Art Collectors and museums should consider when collecting new art is whether or not the public or museum visitors will be entertained or interested in the art. Charles Wilson Peale was a portrait painter who established the first art gallery, natural history museum, and art school in the United States (source B). His museum started out as a small museum with pieces of art that made the viewers curious to a “large and impressive collection of scientifically classified specimens…” According to the source, “Peale also offered his visitors performers, a zoo, and an intriguing assembly of biological oddities such as a two-headed pig, a root resembling a human face, and a five-legged cow with no tail,” Peale collected the art and the entertainment. If Peale hadn’t collected those, his museum would’ve have gone down the drain and wouldn’t have become one of the most popular museums of his time.
While the past two considerations are fine and dandy, a third consideration needs to be taken in. This consideration is: is the artwork historically significant? Art is good; historical art is better. Whether it be old art or art of old times, people are drawn to historical art. In source F, Phillipe De Montebello says, “to give a sense of the magnitude of the effort, I hope you will remember that the Metropolitan’s collections number more than two million works, works of art held in trust for the benefit and education of a broad public, which now numbers some 5.5 million visitors a year.” 5.5 million visitors per year is a ton. When the average amount of visitors is taken (including holidays, all 365 days), the average amount of visitors per day is around 15,069. Due to the historical artwork, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City flourishes.
When it comes down to it, one of the most under-appreciated but important jobs in the world is art collecting. An art collector is who decides if a museum or gallery is successful. Without an art collector, the museum would have no art. Some things art collectors need to take into consideration are: will the art draw the business, will the visitors be entertained, and is the artwork historically significant. If an art collector takes those three things into consideration, his or her career and museum will be successful.
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